K.O.

Description

K.O. Miss RED - Miss Red is not the first non-Jamaican to sing reggae or dancehall in a patois style. And while it's right to be wary of the power dynamics, shouting it down as brazen appropriation elides some of the complexities. On "One Shot Killer," from her debut album, K.O., the Israeli dancehall MC Miss Red echoes a tune from ten years ago-a tune that Kevin Martin, AKA The Bug, also produced. It has the same hammering bassline and paranoid ambience as "Skeng," but in Miss Red's version she swaps apocalyptic bad-man vibes for spooky, ethereal energy. It's a highlight of the LP, the culmination of the two artists' seven-year relationship, which began when Miss Red, born Sharon Stern, grabbed the microphone at one of Martin's gigs in a Tel Aviv basement. On most of K.O. she chats in a classic dancehall style over Martin's instrumentals, which are influenced by acid techno and industrial as much as '80s rub-a-dub reggae.